1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a solderless plastically deformable boardlock for permanently securing a connector to a printed circuit board without the need for post-soldering.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
A multitude of different boardlocks are used in the electronics industry for securing an electrical connector or device to a printed circuit board. Some boardlocks are first securely mounted to a connector, and have resilient legs extending therebelow that are engageable in a hole of a printed circuit board for provisionally holding the connector to the printed circuit board. Examples of such boardlocks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,108,312 and 5,115,375. The boardlocks serve to provisionally hold the connector to the printed circuit board during assembly of other electrical devices. Once the electrical devices are all assembled to the printed circuit board, the board is then taken to a soldering station whereby the electrical connections to the circuit board are permanently soldered thereon, the resilient legs of the boardlock also receiving solder thus being permanently and rigidly secured to the printed circuit board.
Other boardlocks such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,219, do not have resilient legs but instead are inserted through the printed circuit board and then plastically deformed such that they can not be extracted. Post-soldering of these boardlocks is also usually foreseen, because the boardlocks do not hold the device or connector sufficiently securely to the printed circuit board. A further problem with the deformable boardlocks if they don't have resilient legs, is that they can not provisionally hold the connector or device to the printed circuit board during the assembly procedure.
The above boardlocks, although stamped from sheet metal, are relatively complicated and expensive to manufacture.
It is also desirable in the electronics industry to provide a boardlock that doesn't require post-soldering because an increasing number of connectors are being connected to printed circuit boards via compliant pins that require no soldering. The latter is advantageous because it eliminates the need for an extra manufacturing step, namely the soldering process.